Ed,
If the reverse were to happen today. If a virus came
from space or if global warming carried something
toxic to Caucasions, Blacks and Asians and 93 %
were wiped out with the main survivers being those
with Native blood who then went on a looting
rampage stealing everything in sight. Taking credit
for the good things that the immigrant races had
done and harassing the Metis because of their
weak genes.
And when they began to feel a little guilty they
included articles of clothing, pieces of
religion and other pieces of immigrant regalia in
their lives to "honor" the immigrants. They
put up great museums to the quaint ideas of a
Henry the Ford and a Milton the Freedman talking
about how mistaken they were about the weather,
the cultivation of food, the life of all species
and the Circle of the World, but how clever the
immigrants were with mechanical things.
With great debates over whether the Westerner's
mechanical creativity really existed or was simply
a physical projection of their ignored and degraded
human consciousness trying to break through
by manifesting itself as external ideas. A sort of
soul's "attention getting" device. It was said that
the simple result was that their cultural systems
modeling in their brains would not allow the soul's
message to get through. Instead it turned the soul's
plea for help into a way to make money. (Forgive me
Kurt V.) That their creativity was not really true that
it was not only a failure of consciousness but an external
conceit a clever abuse of inner resources.
The indigenous people marveled at the "surprising"
even "shocking" greatness of Beethoven, Mozart
and Shakespeare in spite of the inadaquacy of their
languages, the simple primary colors of their science
and philosophical concepts. They marveled at so
many words for so little thought.
Of course they generally rejected their creativity for
the simple reason that it would call into question
too many presuppositions about the Indian Creator
being real, good or even worthwhile if he wiped out
so many. So it must have been the immigrant's problem.
Retribution for such simple-minded brutality, such
unwillingness to understand the power of thought in
the creation of the world. Their long search for a
physical "First Cause" a "Big Bang" was really the
lack of understanding of time and the necessity to
grow within the cycles of their own lives. A simple tie
to physicality without understanding.
And then when that inevitable immigrant recovery began
to happen putting pressure on the conscience of
the average Indian who pressured their government
forcing them to decide that some recompense
had to be made for the looting and theft, for the stolen
children, the abscounded "cultural capital", the historical
lies... When that finally happened, all negotiations
were conducted from the basic premise of "who
really were the successful ones" and "why the
unsuccessful were dependant upon the successful
for even their existance as a people." Of course
there was no return of children. Olive skinned
white children placed with mixed couples were left
to wonder about their heritage in the midst of the
propaganda. Beautiful black Russian children were
treated with pride while their white siblings were a
cause for shame and separated from their families.
Those who were less were used as skeletons for
the medical schools with their fat boiled off by
Native soldiers anxious for the promised reward
offered for complete immigrant skeletons. With
special prizes for non-infected books, their religious
Icons, their thousands of Italian shoes all for the
special museum to the forgotten immigrants.
So when they finally came to their senses and
began to redress their wrongs, they couldn't quite
go all the way. They were unwilling to recant the
terrible bigotry by some of their best children's
writers who had cried for the complete annihilation
of all immigrants at the beginnings of the plague.
"Sad though it was" they advocated the "necessity" of
making sure that the virus did not mutate and
infect Indian people . Their advice was ignored but
lay beneathe the Native consiousness like an
incestous event that no one acknowledged......
knowing of the cycle of life and the return of bad
to those who gave bad, secretly they were afraid.
When questioned about this return of evil for evil
given, one of their economists said:
>We know that this is a great sadness for all of
>we two leggeds. But there has been much that
>has been washed away by the sands of time.
>Everywhere, even among the immigrants, we
>two-leggeds have done the best we can in returning
>the balance to the Earth Mother. It was not our
>vengence that wrought this great misfortune on the
>immigrants but our Creator caring for those who love
>the Earth Mother and follow His ways. We only
>follow the justice and law of the Creator, nothing
>more. We are not responsible for what led to this
>injustice. The world is not fair. This is all we can
>do in such unfortunate circumstances that constitute
>the road of life.
(He finished with the words:)
>Few immigrants ever stopped to contemplate the
>justice of their actions. It is proof of our great
>compassion that we would even ask the question.
==========================
Did I get it right? I tried hard to make the echo
as accurate as possible. This is my experience, not
reading. We say that reading can serve only to
help one remember what they already know. What
did it feel like to be in the reverse? Were you happy,
sad, angry, threatened? I have been all of these.
Is this policy really the end result of Bach's B minor mass,
Verdi's Turandot, the Britton/Owen War Requiem, the
plays of Shakespeare, the poetry of Robert Burns
and Dylan Thomas, of Goethe? Is this the end result
of Judeo/Christian/Moslem thought? Of Lao Tzu of
Plato, Rumi? This is no different than that cave
in France when the peaceful Albagensians were slaughtered.
The soldiers did not think themselves evil, nor did they
believe the Cathars innocent but they were. If we have
traveled such a short distance in so long a time then
we are moral failures and all of that story about culture,
truth and beauty is but an impotent dream. "Death
shook his head and for a moment had dreamed that
life existed." I believe that Greek, at least, understood.
REH
Ed Weick wrote:
> >Too bad they can't assess liability for lost families,
> >intellectual capital, land use ideas etc. It seems to
> >me that you are using the rules of a divorce without
> >separating.
> >
> >Better you start with the ideas of justice
> >and the rule of law as defined by both groups. The
> >truth is that one group has the power,
>
> Yes, all of this is too bad, but ever so much of history has come adrift and
> been lost in time. People do the best they can and use whatever sense of
> justice is available to them. That is all that they can do in an imperfect
> world. Few conquerors have ever even stopped to think .....
>
> Ed Weick
